


but we are not men

by wolfvoices



Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien, The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: F/F, Tolkien Femslash Week
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-16
Updated: 2017-07-20
Packaged: 2018-12-02 15:50:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 923
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11512557
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wolfvoices/pseuds/wolfvoices
Summary: a collection of femslash drabbles forTolkien Femslash Week 2017.RECENT:3. galadriel/melian,this bitter land4. éowyn/arwen,at first sight5. arwen/tauriel,and you let her go6. finduilas/nienor,and i alone am returned to thee7. arien/melian,light a fire in my eyes





	1. table of contents

1\. Lúthien/Thuringwethil, _darkling, i listen_  
2\. Arwen/Tauriel, _tell me there's a garden (where flowers will grow)_  
3\. Galadriel/Melian, _this bitter land_  
4\. Éowyn/Arwen, _at first sight_  
5\. Arwen/Tauriel, _and you let her go_  
6\. Finduilas/Nienor, _and i alone am returned to thee_  
7\. Arien/Melian, _light a fire in my eyes_


	2. darkling, i listen

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> thuringwethil's first visit to doriath. 
> 
> lúthien/thuringwethil, rated t 
> 
> for the prompt "verdant".

        The borders of Doriath enclose all around, and she can feel her lungs tighten:  _you are not welcome here_ , she can swear the magick whispers. But Lúthien murmurs something— perhaps a spell, some dark chant— and Thuringwethil can breathe again. And then she _sings_ , in that voice that enchanted her ex-lord Morgoth, in that voice that brought Tol-in-Gaurhoth to tremble. And the nightingales come, fair and blue and brilliant, chirping in their own strange tongue. 

        And Lúthien Tinúviel, fairest of all things in the northern world looks at her and laughs. “They say you are sullen as stone.”  

        Thuringwethil has never loved nightingales: but perhaps, in time, she could grow to. 

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title from "Ode to a Nightingale" by John Keats.


	3. tell me there's a garden (where flowers will grow)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> aragorn dies. arwen still lingers, with tauriel not far behind. 
> 
> arwen/tauriel, rated t
> 
> for the prompt based off the song "tell me there's a garden" by joseph.

Lothlórien dies, and Arwen does too with every breath she takes. In Minas Tirith she took up the pastime of gardening, and here she does it too, planting elanor in the spaces where flowers are dying. Lothlórien is a shell without the lady Galadriel, a shell that is breaking bit by bit.

The wood-elf she met long ago in Rivendell— Tauriel— still haunts her steps.  _My lady,_  she calls her. She reminds Arwen to eat and to drink and tells her the great stories of her people, stories of the stars. She is no high elf, not as cultured as Arwen— she is not familiar with the great poets, nor Gondor’s court. But something in her reminds Arwen of Aragorn; rustic and wandering, with hands gentle as the rain.

One day, Arwen wakes. _I will never see Aragorn again_ , she thinks.  _but perhaps there is comfort still to be had._

She goes to Tauriel, sharpening her knives beneath the mallorn, whistling a song. Never far. “Stay with me,” she pleads, over and over again. 

“Of course,” Tauriel always answers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title from the song "Tell Me There's a Garden" by Joseph.


	4. this bitter land

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> melian mourns, but artanis does not linger.
> 
> galadriel/melian, rated t
> 
> for the prompt "i felt the earth move under my feet"

In the twilight, Melian shimmers, a dying star, more mortal than Artanis has ever seen her. In her hands, she holds Thingol’s crown. The woods breathe and shift and tremble, as if Taur-Na-Neldor itself knows what it has lost. 

“I came to say farewell,“ she says. She sits besides Melian. Takes her hand. Brushes her lips across her knuckles. 

“You’re leaving me,” Melian says. 

Artanis does not deny it, does not look her in the eye. “I love you,” she murmurs. “forever.”

“So did he,“ answers Melian. “So did he.”

Artanis leaves, and she does not let herself look back. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title from the song "This Bitter Land" by Erykah Badu & Nas.


	5. at first sight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> arwen's first look at éowyn, white lady of rohan.
> 
> éowyn/arwen, rated t
> 
> for the prompt based off the song "seeing stars" by børns.

Arwen first looks upon the wife of Faramir in the summer, riding her horse from the lower levels of Minas Tirith. Her golden hair streams in the wind. She looks radiant as another sun, a smile blazing in her eyes. The smallfolk of Gondor cry her name, throw flowers at her feet. And Arwen is taken back to that time she first saw Aragorn in Lothlórien, that first time when her heart stopped and sung again.  _Oh_ , she thinks, her stomach tightening.  _Oh._ “Who is she? Arwen asks. 

Ioreth smiles. “The Lady Éowyn of Rohan,” she says, almost proudly. “Slayer of the Witch-King.”

Arwen’s heart lifts then, and for the first time since her arrival she feels high-hearted as the sun.  _Perhaps I could grow to love Minas Tirith_ , she thinks.  _Perhaps._


	6. and you let her go

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> tauriel bids goodbye to arwen. 
> 
> arwen/tauriel, rated g 
> 
> for a prompt based off the quote "being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage" by lao tzu.

Rivendell is blooming when Tauriel prepares to take her leave, spring bringing the wood alive. She stands before the exiting path, Arwen before her.

“Return to me,” she says, her hands clutching Tauriel’s like lilies under the stars. “Promise me,  _meleth nîn_.”

And Tauriel thinks of Kili, thinks of _amrâlimê_ , how she did not look back, not once, and something in her tells her then:  _this is a promise you will not break._

“I promise,” she answers, and kisses Arwen again. “Farewell.” Tauriel brushes a strand of Arwen’s hair back, looks at her lips. “My lady.”

“It’s Arwen,” she smiles. “Always.”

Tauriel goes— and this time, she does look back.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> title from the song "Let Her Go" by Passenger.


	7. and i alone returned to thee

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> nienor and finduilas meet again, in brethil.
> 
> nienor/finduilas, rated t
> 
> for the prompt "i alone returned to tell thee".

Nienor survives Cabed-en-Aras, and by some miracle, the babe does too. Alone in the woods, she wanders, beyond emotion, beyond speech.

And in the woods she finds Finduilas, wandering, alone.

“Nienor,” she rushes forward to cradle her face.  

“Finduilas,” Nienor echoes, utterly desperate, utterly ruined. “You came back to me.”

They spend that night beneath the stars, embracing, a tenderness that they will not outlast.

“He was my brother,” says Nienor. “All along.“

Finduilas says nothing. “It can be ours,” she says, finally. “What will you name it?“

“I don’t know,“ answers Nienor. “I don’t know.“

They build a home, in Brethil, and it is there they are said to linger still.


	8. light a fire in my eyes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> melian mourns. arien comforts her.
> 
> arien/melian, rated t 
> 
> for the prompt "'cause my eyes are burning like the sun."

Melian returns to Valinor a shadow, a ghost of her old self.  When asked, of her daughter and husband she only says:  _I have loved what is mortal. And regretted it._

The light of the west seems dimmer, now, compared to the wildwoods of Doriath, the lanterns in the catacombs of Thingol’s kingdom. The other Maiar do not know quite what to make of her, Thingol’s wife, queen of Doriath, lover of an elf. Arien alone lingers among her, offering no apologies but instead a companionable silence.

“I feel hollow,“ Melian murmurs. “My husband. My daughter. I’ve lost them both.”

Arien does not answer, but her kisses and comforts are warm as a morning star, and leave Melian dizzy with the heat.


End file.
